Postgraduate Course. Meeting 1

POSTGRADUATE COURSE. MEETING 1

1. Complete the following:

a. Spider is to fly as cat is to mice.
b. June is to July as April is to May.
c. Uncle is to nephew as aunt is to niece.
d. Finger is to hand as toe is to foot.
e. Here is to there as this is to that.
f. Day is to week as month is to year.
g. Eat is to ate as go is to went.
h. Food is to hungry as drink is to thirsty.
i.Picture is to painter as book is to writer.
j. Nose is to smell as mouth / tongue is to taste.
k. Hearing is to ear as sight / seeing is to eye.
2. Ask the following questions:

a. Do you know what a fable is?
A fable is a short story which tells a general truth or is only partly based on fact, or literature of this type.
b. Have you heard about any famous fabulist (a person who used to writefables)? What do you know about his / her life?
c. What characterizes every fable?
The fable contains, like the Tale, a short but real narrative; it conveys a hidden meaning, like the Parable, and it implies a skillful introduction of fictitious characters; and yet unlike to either Tale or Parable, the fable will ever keep in view, as its high prerogative, and inseparable attribute, the greatpurpose of instruction, and will necessarily seek to inculcate some moral maxim, social duty, or political truth.
Moral: (noun) [C] The moral of a story, event or experience is the message which you understand from it about how you should or should not behave. E.g. The moral of/to the story is that honesty is always the best policy.
d. Can you retell any fable you know?

3. Read the followingtext taken from Aesop’s Fables, and:
a. Write a suitable title for it.
b. Write its possible moral.

The Wolf and the Lamb
Once upon a time a Wolf was lapping at a spring on a hillside, when, looking up, what should he see but a Lamb just beginning to drink a little lower down. “There's my supper,” thought he, “if only I can find some excuse to seize it.” Then he called out to the Lamb, “Howdare you muddle the water from which I am drinking?”
“Nay, master, nay,” said Lambikin; “if the water be muddy up there, I cannot be the cause of it, for it runs down from you to me.”
“Well, then,” said the Wolf, “why did you call me bad names this time last year?”
“That cannot be,” said the Lamb; “I am only six months old.”
“I don't care,” snarled the Wolf; “if it was not you it was yourfather;” and with that he rushed upon the poor little Lamb and ate her all up. But before she died she gasped out: “Any excuse will serve a tyrant.” “The tyrant will always find a reason for his tyranny.”

Notes:
• Lap: [T] (of an animal) to drink a liquid by taking it in small amounts into the mouth with a lot of short quick movements of the tongue
• Spring: [C] (ALSO springs) a place where waternaturally flows out from the ground.
• Seize: [T] to take something quickly and keep or hold it. E.g. I seized his arm and made him turn to look at me.
• Call out: [I or T] to say something in a loud voice, especially in order to attract someone's attention, or (of animals) to make a loud, high sound, especially to another animal.
• Muddle: (the water)
• Nay: (adverb) No.
• Muddy:(adjective) dirty; covered by or containing mud (= wet, sticky earth).
• Bad names:
• Snarl: (verb I – T) (especially of dogs) to make a deep rough sound while showing the teeth, usually in anger or (of people) to speak or say something angrily and forcefully. E.g. The dogs started to snarl at each other so I had to separate them.
• Rush upon: to attack.
• Gasp: (Verb I) to take a short quick breaththrough the mouth, especially because of surprise, pain or shock. When she saw the money hidden in the box she gasped in surprise.
• Idiom with the word lamb:
 like a lamb to the slaughter: If a person does something or goes somewhere like a lamb to the slaughter, they do it without knowing that something bad is going to happen and therefore act calmly and without fighting against the...